Football Preview: Orem Tigers vs. Maple Mountain Golden Eagles
Orem is on a five-game streak of home wins (dating back to last season), while Maple Mountain is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. The Orem Tigers will host the Maple Mountain Golden Eagles at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. One thing working in Orem's favor is that they have posted at least 31 points in their last three games.
Orem is coming in fresh off a high-stakes matchup with another one of Utah's top teams: Sky View, who was ranked 25th in their home state at the time (Orem was ranked 11th). Orem was just a hair shy of victory on Friday and fell 60-59 to Sky View. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game two weeks ago (37), the Tigers still had to take the loss.
Despite the loss, Orem got top-tier performance from Feleti Iongi, who rushed for 282 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 11.8 yards per carry, and also picked up 48 receiving yards and a touchdown. With that strong performance, Iongi is now averaging an impressive 123.8 rushing yards per game. Another player making a difference was Kaue Akana, who picked up 128 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Even though they lost, Orem was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 442 rushing yards. That's the most rushing yards they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Maple Mountain hadn't done well against Wasatch recently (they were 1-8 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. Maple Mountain strolled past Wasatch with points to spare, taking the game 28-14. The Golden Eagles pushed the score to 28-6 by the end of the third, a deficit the Wasps cut but never quite recovered from.
The defeat snapped Orem's winning streak at five games and leaves them with a 5-1 record. As for Maple Mountain, their win bumped their record up to 6-0.
Orem ended up a good deal behind Maple Mountain when the teams last played back in September of 2023, losing 31-14. Thankfully for Orem, Banks Jackson (who rushed for 119 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries, and also threw for 90 yards and a touchdown) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
